Doppelganger
by Animaltalker
Summary: A challenge story written to explain a picture of a young Jerry Orbach backstage at the musical Promises, Promises. The story proposes that Lennie Briscoe, in the course of an investigation, meets his lookalike, actor Jerry Orbach.


Lennie Briscoe couldn't believe the case he'd landed for his first in the field assignment. He'd only been in the detective bureau at the 17th precinct for a month and so far he'd been running down phone leads, making follow up witness interviews and digging through records all that time. He'd told Gloria he ran more risk from paper cuts and asthma from dust in the records room than anything else.

So when the captain called him into his office he was very curious but when he saw that the old curmudgeon Kramer was already in there and had a bigger scowl than normal on his face he figured he was going to get his butt chewed for something, though he didn't have a clue what he'd done wrong.

"Sit down, Briscoe," the captain had said with a smile.

Lennie didn't know what to make of the situation.

"We got a call from the beat cop who patrols near the Schubert theatre. Seems when the cast of the musical Promises, Promises showed up today for a rehearsal they found a stagehand beaten to death. Needless to say they are all pretty freaked out. But you know what those show business types say 'The show must go on'. Any way I want you two to get down there and conduct the investigation," the captain said.

"No offense captain, but why you saddling me with the kid here?" Kramer asked. "I mean, he's still wet behind the ears," Kramer added.

Lennie bristled. He hated the kid thing. He'd been the youngest in everything he'd done his entire life, and was really looking forward to one day being the old guy.

"Well, for one thing I looked out there into the squad room and I said to myself, 'self, there are about twenty pretty young women on that cast to be interviewed, which of my detectives are going to get the most information out of them?' The answer was pretty simple. The one some of the guys still call Bait," Lennie actually winced when the captain called him by his rookie nickname.

"For another my wife makes me take her to every damn musical that comes along, so I've been to this Promises, Promises production and I swear to God the star of the damn thing, uh," the captain looked at some papers on his desk, "a Jerry Orbach, is a twin to our Detective Briscoe. I figure that ought to work in our favor. It will either unnerve people or put them at ease. Now get out of here and get this one figured out," the captain concluded.

As Lennie walked out of the station house with Kramer, the older detective grumbled about how he was dressed. "You trying to look like some sort of beatnik or something?" Kramer asked.

"Huh? Oh no, my daughter Cathy spit up on me this morning and I had to make a quick change of clothes. Afraid Gloria hasn't been keeping up the laundry too good either, so I didn't have a lot of choices to change into," Lennie answered.

"How old is the kid?" Kramer asked reluctantly.

"Four months," Lennie answered with a big smile.

"I suppose your one of those new fathers that if asked will go on and on about your kid, maybe drag out the photos too, huh?" Kramer asked.

"Maybe I ought to take the fifth on that one," Lennie answered, realizing Kramer was trying to tell him not to bother.

"Here we are, kid. Put your wedding ring in your pocket and get ready to charm all those chorus girls, plus maybe you ought to meet your doppelganger," Kramer said.

Kramer and Lennie met with the Crime Scene tech and the ME and got all the useful info they could, and then they were directed to the stage manager, a Mr. Henry Velez, who took them to the dressing room of the show's leading man, Jerry Orbach.

"A nicer man than Mr. Orbach, you will never meet," the stage manager said as he knocked on the door.

The door opened and Lennie Briscoe felt like he was looking in some sort of strange mirror. The man looking back at him looked a whole lot more like him than his brother Bernie ever did. Dick Kramer looked back and forth between the two men several times and finally swore.

"Damn, Cap'n was right if you two don't look like twins, I'm a monkey's uncle," he said.

"Uh, come in, officers," Orbach finally found his voice.

"Detectives," Kramer corrected. He then asked Orbach some questions and found that the actor had an iron clad alibi and was of no real help in shedding any light on what happened to the stagehand. It was obvious that the actor's only interest was in his double.

"Man, I thought finding a stagehand dead was a big shock, but opening that door and looking at you was a bigger one. If I ever had had a brother, I think he'd have looked like you," Jerry said.

"I have a brother, but he doesn't look like you," Lennie said.

"Hey, as fascinating as it is that the two of you look so much alike, we have a crime to solve," Kramer reminded Lennie and then left the dressing room, not bothering to close the dressing room door.

"Yeah, I'll get right on those interviews of the gals in the chorus line in a second," Lennie said.

"Look, I gotta get back to doing my job, and I suppose you probably have to get back to doing yours, but you think maybe we could find some time to talk a little sometime?" Lennie asked.

"Sure, I'd really like that," Jerry said, handing Lennie a copy of the Playbill for Promises, Promises onto which he'd scrawled his home address and phone number. As Lennie clutched it in his hand the Crime scene tech, who was just leaving the theatre decided to snap his picture. Years later the tech actually sold the picture as a backstage photograph of the celebrity Jerry Orbach, rather than her long time friend NYPD detective Lennie Briscoe. She'd often wondered if the two men had figured out whether they were some how related or if their resemblance was purely coincidental.

Lennie and Kramer solved the case by the way- a simple matter of jealousy and drugs - a deadly combination, but the two men didn't work out as partners. Also thanks to Kramer convincing the captain that Lennie was still "green as grass", he ended up working inside the squad room for what felt to young Lennie like just short of eternity.


End file.
